The revolutionary allegorical novella Animal Farm by George Orwell contains one of the most persuasive and moving speeches in all of literature. During the late hours on the Manor Farm and after its farmer, Mr. Jones, has gone to bed, the animals of Manor Farm convene to meet and hear what the wise pig named Old Major has to say about their way of life. Old Major reveals to the animals that they live a miserable life; they only produce for Farmer Jones while they are left with nothing to preserve themselves. Old Major argues that the animals should rebel against Farmer Jones and establish their egalitarian society of animals by utilizing powerful rhetorical strategies such as establishing himself as a credible figure, appealing to logic, and appealing to emotions of outrage about their situation as well as several others. The Old Major opens his speech by establishing “[his] duty to pass on to [the animals] such wisdom as [he has] acquired” and …show more content…
His long life as one of the oldest animals on the farm helps persuade his audience that he has the life experience to talk about the issues on the farm and has had the time to articulate it to the animals. So, he states that it’s his duty–his burden–to enlighten the animals and guide them to a better future. After his initial introduction, Old Major uses a sharp hypophora to get the animals to think about “what is the nature of [their] lives” and answers to them that their lives are fundamentally “miserable, laborious, and short.” The shrewd language leaves no room for misinterpreting the conditions of their reality. Therefore, it instills a more concrete view of his argument to the naive animals and their miserable condition as an objective issue that needs to be addressed. This segues into Old Major giving a more logical lens of their livelihood and affirms the answer given to the